Unfortunately for the Buckeyes, the reprimand fell on too many deaf ears, and the only thing hard about the afternoon was the fall they took.

Wisconsin hit Ohio State’s suddenly soft defense with 24 points in the first 11 minutes to build an 18-point lead and faced little resistance from there in posting a 71-49 victory in the Kohl Center.

Jared Berggren and Ben Brust scored 15 points apiece to lead No.20 Wisconsin (18-8 overall, 9-4 Big Ten), which remained tied with Michigan for third place in the Big Ten standings.

Thomas scored 18 points for No.13 Ohio State (18-7, 8-5), which lost for the third time in four games, fell to fifth place in the conference.

It was the Buckeyes’ most lopsided loss since a 22-point setback at Wisconsin in the 2010 Big Ten opener, when they played without injured Evan Turner.

Their last loss by 22 points or more with a healthy team was 70-47 to Texas A&M in the 2007 NIT Season Tip-Off in New York.

Wisconsin made more than half its shots from the field, only the third time that has happened to Ohio State this season _ but the second time in three games.

“We shut down defensively,” coach Thad Matta said.

Why?

“I don’t know,” he said.

After the teams played to a 6-6 deadlock in the first 2 1/2 minutes, the Buckeyes missed their next 14 shots and the Badgers scored the next 18 points.

Matta called a timeout with the score 22-6 and said he, “with composure, just lost it.” He said he asked his players, “Where’s our defense? I don’t understand. I don’t know who’s in your jerseys right now in terms of being where you’re supposed to be and doing what you’re supposed to do.”

The timeout stemmed the tide a bit but nowhere near enough for the Buckeyes because, at the other end of the court, they were shooting 32.3 percent from the field, and that was with Thomas making nearly half his shots.

Ohio State trailed 39-22 at halftime, scored the first four points of the second half, trailed by 14 with 15:55 to play, but gave up a 10-2 run in the next four-plus minutes and that was that.

Matta played mostly reserves for the final 10 minutes.

“I don’t know if people felt like we beat ’em already (last month in Columbus) so we’re comfortable we can beat them again,” Thomas said. “But each and every day, other teams get better, so you’ve got to be ready each and every day, especially in this league.”

Wisconsin came into the game shooting less than 40 percent from the field and shot a season-high 52.7 against Ohio State. The only other teams to make more than half their shots against the Buckeyes this season were Kansas and Indiana.

“We walked off the practice floor (Saturday) in Columbus and I felt like we had two great preps coming in. We were specific with what we were going to do,” Matta said.

“I don’t know. Whatever I did didn’t work in terms of getting this team . . . to compete at a level we needed to compete at to give ourselves a chance.”